Improvement in ornamental chains



E. VEBPILLIER. Ornamental Chain.

No. 201,|35'. Patented March 12,1878

UNITED STATES PATENT OF ICE.-

EMILE VERPILLIER, OF NEWARK, NEVVJERSEY.

IMPROVEMENT IN ORNAMENTAL CHAINS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 201,135, dated March 12, 1878; application filed August 10, 187.7.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, EMILE VERPILLIER, of Newark, in the county of Essex and State of New Jersey, have invented a new and Improved Ornamental Ohain, of which the following is a specification:

Figure 1 is a face view of a strip of sheet metal shaped for use in the manufacture of my improved chain. Fig. 2 is an edge view thereof. Fig. 3 is an edge view thereof, showing its agraife projections bent inward; Fig. 4, a face view thereof. Fig. 5 is a view of the chain as it appears while in process of construction; Fig. 6, a view of the completed chain and Fig. 7 is a detail sectional View of a portion of the chain.

Like letters in the several figures indicate corresponding parts.

This invention relates to a new construction of ornamental chain,to be used asawatchchain, bracelet, or for like ornamental and more or less useful purposes.

The invention consists in making the chain of one or more sheet-metal strips, each strip being provided with projecting agrafi'es, that look into recesses, also provided on said strip, all as hereinafter more fully described.

In the accompanying drawing, the letter A, as represented in Figs. 1 and 2, represents the strip of sheet metal from which my improved chain is to be made. This strip has a straight upper edge, a, and along the lower edge a series of projecting shields, b b, with intervening recesses or notches d d. These shields may be of suitable design; but they are made to correspond one with the other in size and shape, as shown. A richer effect may, however, be produced by making the alternate shields, or even the third shields, correspond in size and shape.

Each shield b carries at its lower contracted end what 1- term an agrafle, 0, being an enlargement that extends laterally beyond the contracted neck f, as clearly shown in Fig. 1.

For making a chain from the sheet-metal strip A,it is first necessaryto bend the agraffes volutions, and locked therein by passing the several agraffes 6 through the notches d, which are in line therewith in the coiled chain, as clearly shown in Fig. 5.

When a tubular chain of desired length has thus been made, it is next placed over a copper or other yielding tube, and stretched on and with said tube, so that, by the stretching process, the diameter of the tubular chain will be reduced. Bythis means the several shields are brought closer to each other, close enough, in fact, to cause any two adjoining shields to closely hug the neck f of the agraffe that was introduced between them, and thus render it impossible to draw the agrafl'e out from between the shields. This structure is thus made permanent.

Instead of inserting the agraffes from the outside, they may be inserted through the notches from the inner side, to project outwardly, and then clinched or secured, as already described, producing a somewhat richer efi'ect.

The chain made as described will appear as composed of a series of scales, which are joined into a flexible fabric. It is ornamental, durable, and not necessarily expensive. It is evident that if the strip A is made of wire, instead of sheet metal, but with the agraffes c bent from said wire, the same character of chain will be produced.

I claim as my invention- 1. A chain constructed of the strip A, which EMILE VERPILLIER.

Witnesses ERNEST G. WEBB, F. V. Bmnsnm 

